I’d like to share my latest hardware ground control station. I call it the ArduStation Mega.
It retains all the features found on the DIYDrones Ardustation, as well as my Ardustation Uno but with some very important upgrades.
It retains all the features found on the DIYDrones Ardustation, as well as my Ardustation Uno but with some very important upgrades.
Notably the main processor has been upgraded to an ATmega2560 giving 8 times the size of both flash and ram, amongst other things :)
Also there is a graphical LCD that should provide a larger, more user friendly display.
The extra serial ports (4 in total) will enable future expansions as and when required. One is dedicated to the USB for loading software as well as potentially being used to allow a computer to share the installed Xbee.
If you don’t want to use an Xbee, or want to use more than one, that’s fine- three of the serial ports are broken out to the left of the board. These could also be used for adding a GPS unit, or perhaps a bluetooth to pc link for example.
Also broken out is the i2c port, so you can link it up to a magnetometer if need be (could make for simpler antenna tracking alignment)
A micro SD card will allow data logging, parameter saving, mission uploading and hopefully more!
Also there is a graphical LCD that should provide a larger, more user friendly display.
The extra serial ports (4 in total) will enable future expansions as and when required. One is dedicated to the USB for loading software as well as potentially being used to allow a computer to share the installed Xbee.
If you don’t want to use an Xbee, or want to use more than one, that’s fine- three of the serial ports are broken out to the left of the board. These could also be used for adding a GPS unit, or perhaps a bluetooth to pc link for example.
Also broken out is the i2c port, so you can link it up to a magnetometer if need be (could make for simpler antenna tracking alignment)
A micro SD card will allow data logging, parameter saving, mission uploading and hopefully more!
The rotary encoder (like a radio’s jog dial) should help with faster navigation / value editing. The buttons are also on a separate PCB such that they can be mounted flush with the display or separately subject to enclosure constraints. (Also this means I can change the layout of the buttons)
The battery supply and Xbee RSSI are connected to give health information on voltage and telemetry link signal strength. Additional analog pins are also broken out for monitoring external sensors.
The battery supply and Xbee RSSI are connected to give health information on voltage and telemetry link signal strength. Additional analog pins are also broken out for monitoring external sensors.
The PCB has been sized to match the dimensions of the LCD, giving a neat install that can be attached with screws and spacers. All of the components are mounted on the inside as well, such that the total unit size is minimised.
As with my Uno version, I use a single cell LiPo for the battery source, with an efficient step up regulator for the 5v supply. There’s also inbuilt USB charging.
The antenna tracking will be achieved by the two servo headers on the right hand side of the board. These also have a solder jumper for selecting off-board power in case heavy duty servos are to be used.
Please let me know what you think!
The antenna tracking will be achieved by the two servo headers on the right hand side of the board. These also have a solder jumper for selecting off-board power in case heavy duty servos are to be used.
Please let me know what you think!
If you want to see more, here's a video of me showing it off:
Comments
Why not add a "panic button" that is easy to find and operate which sends a chosen command. ex RTL or Loiter
Thanks for the encouraging words guys :-)
Michael, I basically copied and pasted my code from the old Ardustation and updated it for the new bits. The references to pins 11-13 are stale, they were referring to the charlieplexed board. Instead the buttons are addressed using the wire library in zMain.ino using the address defined in ArdustationMega.ino (#define expander B0100000)
Jani, I just loaded up those schematics and on first inspection the board looks very similar to mine in that it uses the same two atmegas and a micro sd. I’ve broken out the serial lines on my board, so I could simply attach the wireless module you use (GPS will also go on another serial line) and effectively have the same thing. If the design doesn’t change too much, I imagine we could share the same code base.
Yeah just like Stefan and others said, there are enough room for multiple groundstations. So your work is not wasted.
Hi Colin, Dont be put down by the Ardustation 2 talk. Your station looks great and I will build one.
I guess the AS 2 will interface to a webbrowser so we all can use our IOS/Androids on the field. Problem with that is sunlight readability (again). Why not sell some PCB's to get something back from all the time you invested ?
Yep you are correct on that. Ok it does not look like what on Jordis post but features will be similar. Electronic is ready for devs and people are currently wirting software for it. It will have it's own webserver etc onboard among many other things. Eagle files etc are on Google code http://code.google.com/p/ardustation2/
Colin, while looking over your schematic and your code, I got a bit confused about the connection to the button board. The schematic uses SDA/SCL, but the code uses Pins 11-13. Could you enlighten me?
I will continue working on this, even if there will be an "official" new groundstation - it's just too much fun and you can never have enough groundstations, right? ;)
Michael
Meant to link to this post in the first line of that
Hi Jani, I'd love to know what you've got there! I'm picturing something without an LCD and a WiFi module installed, given the hints from this post.
I put a level shifter on the transmit line to drop the atmega's logic to 3.3v for the xbee but the receive line isn't shifted back up to 5v as 3.3v is still digital high.
I learnt a lot teaching myself how to make this and am proud that I successfully etched my own arduino mega based board. All of the posts I’ve seen suggesting new ardustations appeared to be rumors that would probably never happen, however. If I had known I may have not spent so much time on this one. I hope that Chris has added me to the dev mailing list like he said he would.
ArduStation two boards are already on our dev peoples hand (i have one here too) and we are working on those. They will be a bit different than this or earlier Ardustation.
Colin checked your schematics and noticed that you only have 1 level shifter on xbee why so?
Thanks. I would very much like to see an Ardustation incorporating some of the above features for sale. Chris Anderson hinted (in the comments here) that there was an Ardustation 2 in the prototype stage. If nothing comes out though and the demand is there then I will consider selling it myself.
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